Tocopherols are a group of methylated phenol compounds exhibiting vitamin E activity, found in small quantities in animal and vegetable fats. The group of compounds includes alpha, beta, gamma, and delta tocopherol, as well as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta tocotrienol. Tocopherols have a number of commercial applications, primarily as a vitamin E dietary supplement. Other commercial applications include use as a food additive to prevent spoilage and oxidation.
Tocopherols are present in very small quantities in crude vegetable oils. The majority of the tocopherols contained in the crude fats are removed during the deodorization stage of the refining process. The resulting deodorizer distillate streams typically contain from less than 1% to greater than 20% tocopherols by volume. The remaining volume is comprised of a combination of various lipid derivatives, including tocopherol esters, free fatty acids, sterols and sterol esters, hydrocarbons such as squalene, as well as small quantities of glycerides. Because tocopherols represent such a significant commercial value, complicated chemical methods for their removal and purification from deodorizer distillate streams are currently utilized despite their high cost and level of complexity.
Methods of tocopherol purification in the art involve multi-step processes and require a catalyst, solvent, or both, in order to concentrate and isolate tocopherols from deodorizer distillates. Further, prior methods require long residence times for various reactions to take place, followed by a complicated series of distillations or separations to isolate the tocopherol products from the distillate.